So, this just happened. I went to a local corn festival with my wife, two children, and mother-in-law. It has corn, carnival rides, shows, and crafts area for vendors to setup and sell their wares. The even was free, open to the public, and had no signs posted that prohibited photography. So, I was happily snapping away casual photos all over the place with my point-and-shoot, not even my DSLR. When we were finishing up the craft area, I thought it would be nice to do a panoramic shot. I was standing in the middle of the walking path, between all of the stalls and was figuring out where to start the shot and all of a sudden, this lady walks up and shouts "no photography! You can't take a picture here!" I calmly stared her down and informed her that I was at a public event and there was no posting that prohibited photography. Furthermore, I would do as I pleased. I think if I didn't have about three feet and a hundred pounds on her, she would have tried to snatch my camera. Since it was a nice day and I didn't much care, I didn't take the picture. But, the live view LCD was still active and she got in my personal space, pointed at the camera and screamed at me that "this is SHOPLIFTING!" at which point other people started looking over at the scene she was making. I told her to step away from me and again told her that I knew my rights and that taking a photo in a public space, at a public event, where there was no posted prohibition against photography was completely legal and she didn't understand what she was talking about. So then the says, "why don't we just go talk to the police about it!" Much to her surprise, I said "Yes, I would like that, let's go talk to the police about it."

So, after walking a bit, with her ranting nonsense about photographing her stuff being a form of shoplifting - I found a sheriff, manning the beer tent. I politely asked the officer, "is it illegal to take photographs at this event, because I did not see any posting prohibiting it?" to which he responded, "no, you can take any photos you want." The lady was not satisfied with this and stepped into the sheriff's personal space (bad move, in my opinion) and she demanded that I was shoplifting because I was taking photos of her designs, which I could copy and then replicate and sell. I actually laughed, and said "that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard... I was taking picture of my wife and kids!" At this time, my wife and kids actually caught up while she started to say "your wife wasn't anywhere near you when you were taking pic..." but she stopped short. You see, I am Caucasian, but my wife is South Asian and my kids are mixed. She had just assumed my wife and kids would have been white too. At that moment, she realized in fact, my wife and kids were right there, as I was taking their picture.

Taking the initiative to rub it in a little, I told her, "even if I wasn't taking pictures of my family, I could sit there and snap photos all day, and that she should understand the law." Still undeterred, she then asked the sheriff, "if I tell someone to stop taking photos of my stuff, they have to do it, right?" I already knew the answer and had a shit-eating grin. The sheriff responded, there is no law prohibiting anyone from taking a photo at a public event, even if you ask them to stop. It is the polite thing to do, though." SO, I added, "that is exactly what I did - I stopped taking pictures when the lady demanded me to stop."

Unwilling to admit defeat, the lady made on last ditch effort to get a jab at me by saying, "you don't have to be such a jerk about it and make me waste my time coming over here and not attend to my shop!" to which I responded "I! Did not MAKE! YOU! do ANYTHING! YOU! came over here on your own, because you falsely accused me of shoplifting IN FRONT OF MY FAMILY!"

At this point, the sheriff kind of rolled his eyes and said, "I think everything has been resolved, you all have a pleasant rest of your day." I thanked him, gave the lady a nice "fuck you" kind of smile, and left with my family.

In any case, if you have something you are afraid other people will somehow copy and duplicate, don't bring it to a public, free, family event where hundreds of people will be snapping pictures. And for goodness sake, don't claim other people are shoplifting - especially when one of them may actually know their rights.

TL&DR - craft lady accused me of shoplifting because I was taking photos of my family in front of her booth. She thought I was stealing her stupid, crappy patterns or something. The police told her she was wrong.

I was in Scottsdale taking photos at a fair downtown that had booths and a band. Well one lady thought I was taking photos of her shitty hairpins. She got straight up in my face and started swatting my camera.

I knew there was an officer 15 feet behind me so I slowly walk backwards as he's taking shots at me. I lock eyes with the officer and he knew exactly what was up. 3 seconds, and her wearing some shiny bracelets and the world was right.

Same thing happened to me. I was at a flea market in Sanford, FL and I had a Spinner 360 film camera with me. I walked into the middle of a booth selling chandeliers held the camera up and took a picture. The lady who owned the booth followed me out of it and demanded to see the pictures. I told her they were on film and she told me I better not post them on the internet because people would copy her designs.

I was once taking photos on the street in downtown Boston, 'street photography' if you will, minding my business not getting in anyone's way when a security guard from the building I was in front of came out and told me, "you can't take photos of our building." It was somehow against their rules (it was a bank of america corporate office, fyi). I was on the sidewalk and assured him that I wasn't interested in the building, that I was a local student, and that in fact he didn't have authority over me. He insisted that it was against the building's policy, I repeated my claims as well as the basic principles of photographic rights in public places. He then told me that he gets into this same argument with people all the time, that he understood the law and knew i wasn't breaking it, and that if he didn't give me a hard time his boss would ream him out for not doing so.

I'm a regular vendor at craft shows, helping my wife sell her work. She is a silversmith, you are welcome to take pictures because you can't make it. We really don't mind other jewelers looking, because someone who has spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars mastering a craft is, with very few exceptions, going to make ideas their own. If a vendor's art can be made by the buyers at home... maybe they shouldn't be selling it.

Of course paintings and photo prints are different, they can be copied by a camera. Vendors don't lose a whole lot of sleep over it though, the guy who happily uses a poorly lit copy of a print wasn't really the target market for a quality framed photo anyway.

I work with people in the anime convention scene who make their own products as well as sell others. Some of the vendors we know get really offended about photography, just like the incident listed. The people I work with and myself though...we understand that there is nothing we can do.

That is the risk of having anything in public, you just deal with it. The reality is that most people are not going to even try to copy you. If they copy anything it might be a business model or booth setup but it isn't likely to be your exact line of products, and even if it is you just need to rest on the opinion that yours are better made, and that this will win in the end.

For example, there are tons of people making hats at anime conventions, and the hat people just tend to have the sense to not step on eachother's toes. They all make nearly identical products but they just focus on their own small niche of it.

People like this woman are insane because if someone wanted to steal her designs they could just buy a couple, which is how designs are ACTUALLY stolen.

I guess I'm rambling, this type of vendor just annoys the piss out of me.

I was out in San Fran playing tourist with my brand new 20D (this was some years ago) on Pier 39 when I happened upon a sign that said "Photo Spot" (like this). So I'm setting up for a shot right in front of that sign (it wasn't that exact spot, there are several of these placards around there) getting my tripod set up and the right lens and what have you when I notice this security guard eyeing me. He walks up to me and says "taking pictures?" I had to really restrain myself, "Uh… yeah." So he says "who said you can take pictures here?" I felt my face contort into a very "the fuck?!" face and took one step back and pointed at the sign. He turned right around and hurried away. I sometimes wonder if he was the n00b who was pranked into embarrassing himself by the old timers or something. I can't think of any other good reason that he would have approached me.

Yeah i've run into these yoyos before. I saw a thing that I thought would be cool to make for myself so I pulled out my phone to take a picture. Lady come unglued, and since I was in her shop I put away my phone. Then, I took out my notebook and drew a picture and descrption so I could make one. She didn't say shit about that.

Oh man, I've had the exact opposite happen. I was allowed to snap away happily at the Alhambra in Spain but when our class got out our drawing pads we were informed that "es impossible" (not, it's not permitted) to draw. The drawing nazi physically grabbed and shut my sketchpad, uh hello assault. I feigned lack of understanding and held up my camera as I had been taking a few pictures prior to that (being used to the Italian's NO PHOTO rules). She gives me a thumbs up type gesture pointing to my camera. And I'm like whatever, weirdo, I have homework to do. My prof was right beside me and was like... but these are students of architecture. Every other fucking tourist in the place is giving this lady the look like she's crazy as she babbles on about how we can't draw here.

Professor's like permission my ass and decides to start sneaking around to draw. I join him in this mission of rage, empowered by my angry street photographer instincts. She catches us eventually. Tells us off, grabs my book again. I start screaming at her in french and pound my pencil onto my notebook OOH, C'EST POSSIBLE, C'EST PHYSIQUEMENT POSSIBLE... because I don't speak spanish and she didn't speak english and this was like the 5th museum in Spain that had pulled this shit on us. And right next to us there's a tripod douchebag obstructing the flow of traffic.

Our other prof, who's this suave motherfucker is comes over and is like what's the problem? They argue about copyright law for a good 5 minutes in Spanish. Apparently the weirdo who owns the place has a copyright on all drawings and paintings of the place. Something about owning of image. And I was like but, student exemption to copyright law because fair use? We're a student group, no derivative works doesn't even apply academic study. The suave professor was doesn't make any headway, and the first professor is now on her case too. Now everyone is giving this lady the wtf, bro? look. She stamps off in a huff telling us not to do it again. A few other tourists are like that's stupid and offer their condolences in Spanish, Catalan, French and English.

This lady still gets me full rageface to the day... like more than the times in Rome when I got told I wasn't a student because I wasn't from the EU. Sorry for the rant. TL;DR: don't try drawing in Spain it's "impossible". Or, try drawing in Spain and fuck The Man.

I actually witnessed a French sketch artist pummel an Italian architect in Morocco over a sketch of an archway.
The artist was sketching away and the architect came over in full on Latin bravado rage mode. He got a full sentence out when the Frenchman began swinging. It was an amazing thing to see the instant transition from calm, cool, collected just sketching this door arch to full on crazed monkey on roids beat down mode.

The french escalate things really quickly. A bus I was on in Nice stopped right in the middle of the road (traffic and all) and told some witch she had to leave the bus, right there. To be fair, she was spazzing out about someone else's baby carriage and baby or something. I couldn't understand a word.

He and his friend were on the tram to go drinking at a bar in the city center. As they got on, a hobo demanded (American hobos say please and thank you, French hobos demand and curse you out) money from them, they said no, he spat on the friend while the doors closed. On their way back, they swathe hobo still there. The friend is a professional fighter who is 6ft 180lbs. He said "hey, remember me?", then slugged the hobo in the face. Picked the hobo up and dropped him on his back for the knockout blow.

The Louvre allows photography and sketchbooks, but you can also apply for a copyist permit, and they will then supply you with a easel and chair so you can practice the techniques of the original artists.

Admission is free for international art teachers and art historians, any teacher from France, any member of affiliated artist associations, anybody under 18, anybody under 25 from Europe, the unemployed, pensioners, and the disabled with their helpers.

If your country holds a unique cultural treasure, it can only make your country richer if you let anybody who wants to study that treasure enrich themselves. One treasure then becomes thousands of treasures.

That is the right way of going about it. I believe the Prado was set up similarly with free student tickets, and professor tickets. You could draw in there too... I spent at least an hour sitting in front of one painting with my jaw on the floor and then did a gesture drawing of it. I saw several art students doing oil paint copies of the work so I suspect you could apply for a permit to do that. They were strictly "no photo" but I suspect that was for conservation purposes (flash photography ruins oil paintings). Those big museums sure get it right. Pretty much all of Italy had it right, I could draw in every fucking museum, gallery and church that we went in to and photograph in every church except for the Sistine Chapel (which image is owned by a Japanese businessman who sponsored the restoration, wtf)... which was probably like why after such an experience that Spain was such a bonerkiller.

I'm glad the French are nice about that. Perhaps I will travel there when I have money again.

I know it's really beyond me. Like the people who actually built the thing are long dead, and frankly I think it's a disservice to them to not allow architectural students (or any student of art) to sketch and learn from their work. It's not like we were setting up with a full blown easel and oil paint rig. It was college students and professors with sketchpads. I can see them getting their panties in a knot about a professional artist selling stuff, but a professional photographer could sell one of their images of the building too. I wasn't toting a point and shoot, I had a D90 on me which is pretty serious hunk of camera, and could be used professionally. That reminds me I still need to photoshop a bunch of dicks onto that building. Though, The kicker was the terrible art book they had in the gift shop which was watercolor paintings of the building... which were TERRIBLE. I people who could do better work in high school than that.

I honestly would never go back there. The people completely ruined the place for me... and it cost too much fucking money for them to treat me like shit. ($19 euro for student admission? Go fuck yourself.) Although there were some lovely stray cats that I became bros with at the gate. I liked the cats.

Apparently the weirdo who owns the place has a copyright on all drawings and paintings of the place.

I cannot understand how this can work given the way laws, broken as they are, are designed nowadays. With an old building this shouldn't be possible (there are ways around this such as the rights being owned on the lighting of the Eiffel Tower in Paris).

I don't understand either... it's quite inane. My professor said that this was quite common in Europe for a building to be "copyrighted" somehow by its owner. Like they own the rights to the distribution of images of their property or something.

So if the lighting on the Eiffel Tower is copyrighted how the hell do you take a photo of the Paris skyline without infringing upon copyright? It's huge, massive and is probably always going to be there.

In France at least (not too sure of the rest of Europe, but I suppose it's more or less the same), a building's design is owned by its architect (you cannot cede all your rights like you can in the US). So for some standard duration, images featuring the building may be subject to some kind of copyright from the author (like any other work).

For the Eiffel tower, like for any other building, it depends whether it's the main focus of the image or if it's just a part of it. If it's just part of the skyline, then the copyright doesn't apply.

Holy shit, I experienced just the same thing at the Alhambra. We had paid to visit the palace at night (the one with the lion fountain). It was absolutely impossible to understand how to get there at night since you didn't enter at the same gates as during the day. When we got to the palace, having dragged our camera equipment and tripods, etc, the staff tells us that we're not allowed to use a tripod. It was absolutely infuriating, having someone tell you in broken english, right to your sweaty, tired face, that NO, you are not allowed to use your tripod. He did not even state a reason. Probably because he couldn't, with his god-awful English.

We visited the shop at the Alhambra gates another day and I confirmed my suspicion that they want you to buy their pictures of Alhambra. The pictures were terrible, too. Seriously, fuck the rules and fuck their horrid English.

Yeah. The hill that you walk up from the village almost gave my professor a heart attack. And then they treated us like dirt when we got there!

That place is staffed by a bunch of cuntwaffles (I'm not using that term lightly either). F-- would not let them take my money again. I was there during the off-season too, so at first I thought it was a flow of traffic thing, but it was them just being copyright nazis and profiteers. Seriously, all their photobooks sucked too? Who the hell do they hire for this shit. Also, I would have been fine with this if they had these rules posted at the front gate, it's like I want some warning before we drop almost €20 on admission. My professor had planned an entire lesson around the tile patterns in the building. =/.

Fun fact. I was watching television in Barcelona and one of the headlines was that Spain voted itself the worst country in the EU to speak English in. The thing about Spain is your second language is already a provincial one like Catalan, or Basque that is only spoken in that small corner of the world. My friend who's fluent in Spanish (from South America), got into a fight with a shop keeper over what a certain kind of meat was called, because he was asking for it in Spanish and she was answering in Catalan and getting pissed off.

It wouldn't be so bad except they're not even willing to work with you and dealing with the language barrier. Back in the 90s when my family was in Tuscany, we often hit a language barrier, because English hadn't become common there. But damned if the Italians were going to let that stand in the way of them talking with you. We were staying at this vineyard and the owner upon seeing me, a 7 year old (Italians fucking love kids), drags me off to show me the chickens, gives me some eggs, shows me the rest of the farm and is babbling a mile a minute in Italian but also pointing to everything. It was super cool. Versus Spain, where if you can't pronounce servicios (with that "bth" lisp) you're going to have a hella hard time finding el bano. I seriously love Barcelona and the rest of Spain, but I would not go back again without learning Catalan and Castilian Spanish.

We basically ran up that hill because we were late due to the lack of information. Horrible considering how warm it is even during the night. I'm pretty sure the photobooks were good, but they had this big display where you could order large photo prints of Alhambra, the palace etc. And they were really bad, it's a shame really.

Their English is downright embarrassing, we tried to purchase a 3G modem for our 3 week stay so that we could surf the internet. But no, no phone company had a good short-term plan or even good rates for prepaid modems. It's like they don't want our money. Plus nobody understood what we said.

Italians always struck me as nicer people overall, with their hand gestures and whatnot. But yeah, fuck the unwillingness to learn English in Spain. It's a huge language that could help them rake in the money they desperately need from tourism, but nah, let's not learn it.

I've found that when dealing with crazy people, it's best to use as few words as possible. They will dig their own grave with their insanity. Whenever they say something batshit insane, smile. This drives them even crazier, and your lack of words gives them no ammunition.

I totally understand where folks are coming from when they want to give an "eff you" smile back to the person to rile them up. But really it's just playing the game with the crazy people. My approach is to speak slowly, deliberately, and sensibly. Be genuine and polite, even if the favor isn't returned. That's an approach from a more civilized age.

You'll unknowingly be setting an example that a few people will copy (just as there's copycats for bad behavior). Then again, if you do the shit-eating smile thing, people will copy that as well. While you have an audience, might as well choose what behaviors you want to propagate into this psychotic world.

Unfortunately, the psychotic people can't be dealt with as normal people. They reason they've gotten so far is that they know how to ride just on the other line of being unreasonable. Getting them to shoot past that line far enough that they get smacked down (police, event organizer, etc) is really the only way to take care of them.

The 'eff you' smile is an inappropriate move.
The appropriate smile is an "I'm going to destroy you" smile. It's a superiority smile.
If they start going crazy, leave and smile.
Continue leaving and smile.
If they pursue you, leave and smile.
If they touch you, deck them, and leave and smile.
If there are cops, please do exactly what OP did. Find the cops immediately, smiling the whole way.

I was with a friend who was shooting a public event, someone had the bright idea to demand that we needed release forms from /everyone/ or we weren't allowed to use our cameras. Same similar situation, public venue, we had the permission of the owner, and so on. So rather than resolving simply, the guy acquired a large posterboard sheet, and everywhere we went, held it up in our FOV as close as he could get, stating that "public place, I can do what I want /TOO/"

People see creativity and the efforts towards creativity as a personal attack on themselves and take up a righteous crusade /against/ anyone attempting art of any kind.

Yeah, there were a thousand ways to solve the situation, but at the time, we had pretty much hit the saturation point in coverage. So the path of least "dealing with a fuckball" was to just end the shoot.

Same shit happened to me. I was taking pictures of DeepEllum downtown Dallas during a craft fair of my in laws and wife. Some bitch selling leather bags got mad at me for having her bags in the photo. Ruined my entire day made me feel like a child. Why should she be allowed to act like that?

The crazies have brought a lot of excitement to our trade... but we could blame it on this whole culture of 'participation equals theft' I think. Remember the video of a kid dancing to a Prince song that he then forced to be taken down from youtube. Taking pictures at an event being perceived as 'shoplifting' comes from exactly this narrow mindset about what culture really means.

Prince® is a Registered Trademark of Prince Rogers Nelson and unauthorized use, whether for profit or freely distributed over the World Wide Web, is forbidden and is a breach of international copyright laws.

In hip hop and house music there is a fairly blatant tradition of sampling the most obscure stuff possible not only so people don't know where you get your sound but also so no one can identify the sample and sue you for it.

Im an artist and photographer and Im so glad you stood up for yourself to that loony. thats what I hate about those crazies at art fairs etc. and as a photographer I am doubly pissed that we have to have these same arguments all the time with morons. Lucky for you the cop knew what he was talking about; cause cops love to harrass and arrest people for taking even the most mundane of photos. Anyway: this woman needs to also understand that artists copy from each other all the time. So even if you liked her work documented it and tried to reproduce it, so what. itd be something unique to you and itd be a lot of effort to make money on it. When I shoot on the street I always get comments like "whatdya gonna do, sell it?" like "poof" its that easy. I used to set up sometimes down on West Broadway in Manhattan and it was other artists that were the only aggressors towards me. not for looting their work but just for being successful. anyway. again proud of you for standing up for your civil liberties and chalenging her ignorace.

Same thing happened to me, here in NSW, Australia. Was at a monthly fair (stalls of home-made jam, dog coats, model planes made out of beer cans etc) and just wandering around taking photos. There was this stall of dolls - hideous dolls - the sort of thing you can imagine getting animated in a horror movie.

I was so repulsed by these hideous dolls that I took a photo. Lady behind the stall immediately jumps and starts screaming at me telling me I can't take pictures of her property. I point out that I can do what the hell I like since it was a public place, but she's having none of it. She asks me why I'm taking the photos and I tell her it's because I've decided to wind up my career as a journalist and sell foul looking dolls at craft markets. She looks all shocked, marches off in the direction of the organisers caravan. At this point my wife catches up with me and drags me off by the elbow to look at hair clips. Keep meaning to drop by the markets again and see if the old bag's back again - maybe make a movie about her.

I journal by sketching and often draw my environs to remind myself of that place. I was doing this while waiting for a flight in Europe. Some guy who was selling these miniature model scenes in a booth in the concourse over and started screaming at me. I had no idea what he was saying and when security showed up I found out he had assumed I was sketching his models. He was quite embarrassed when I showed him the drawing of the airport. Seemed bizarre to me at the time that even sketching could be seen in some persons opinion as stealing even if I had been. At any rate, OP I can totally relate. A surreal experience no doubt.

I was at the Bangor State Fair one year, using a crappy, little snappy camera to get a few of shots of my friends. Suddenly, a bear-sized guy charged out of a distant crowd, red-faced and nearly hyperventilating. He screamed at me to erase the photos I had taken of him and his wife. I'd been so far away from him that there was no chance he'd be recognizable in any of my photos. (shitty old Kodak 3Mpix with a horrible lens.) He was absolutely flipping out, and I could tell that he was only barely restraining himself from punching my head off. (He was about twice my weight and about 8-10" taller.)

He was adamant, and seemingly really freaked out. Clearly this wasn't about something as banal as privacy. He looked pretty desperate, and his wife looked kind of scared as well. Finally I said, "OK, OK. I'll erase them." He stood and watched while I deleted everything I'd shot in that area. He made me show him the photos, and thanked me when I was done. Very weird. I figured that he must be in the Witness Protection Program or something.

As far as I know, all off-the-grid devices are OK, so they can use electricity as long as they generate it themselves, or something like that. Cellphones use cell towers and millions worth of infrastructure, so that's not exactly off-the-grid...

Reminds me of what happened to my boyfriend and me a couple of years ago in Carmel. We were out for a nice evening stroll and window shopping at stores. I took a picture of a statue in a store window. It was then that the woman came out and rudely told us to stop, and accused me of taking pictures to pass this work on as our own. She started accusing me of being an artist who wanted to take pictures to copy this work and that no pictures can be taken of it EVER!

Here is the irony. The store's website she has a picture of that very statue and in the picture there was no name of the artist, so anyone could just save that picture and pass it as their own.

If you don't want pictures taken of your precious work, don't stick it in the window where it can be photographed from a very public sidewalk.

I remember once I was working on a film project for my class, we had to do portraits of people. I don't like doing portraits of friends so I went into town, set up, asked people if I could take their photograph and offered a developed print at a later date if they wanted one. This one lady came over asked for me to take her picture, then about 10 minutes later, demanded it back saying I could use it to steal from her. I explained to her that film cameras don't work like that, and I couldn't exactly delete it there without messing up the film, but I would be glad to get rid of it when the film has been developed. She walked off in a huff, came back with a cop, told him that I had taken her picture without her permission, started getting all riled up. Luckily, I had taken a picture of the cop earlier, so he knew what was up, so he was able to calm her down, he "confiscated" the roll, and everybody walked away happy with me disposing of the negative when it was developed as promised.

Why in God's name would I say that to a person? At all? She was clearly freaked out at the concept of her picture being somewhere else and she just wanted it back. I don't use curse words to insult people unless they deserve it and a lady who for all I know has mental problems certainly does not deserve it. So how about next time you get riled up enough to tell a stranger that, you eat crow and handle it calmly?

I show respect to people that earn it. some whiney bitch that gets her picture taken, then change her mind, THEN involves authorities because she's too stupid to know how film work. doesn't deserve my respect. if she wouldn't of been a bitch and simply understood he would discard the photo when the film was developed, fine. honestly though, I don't need to explain myself further.

You're right, you really don't you've just completely shaken my world view, changed my entire philosophy towards being respectful to people. I'm sure if I had started yelling down a middle aged woman on a crowded street where a cop was within walking distance, it would have been just great. Thank you, for opening my eyes. You know what, fuck it, a great majority of the people in my town don't deserve my respect by your standards (since you know, people like you and I, we're on a higher plane you know?) maybe I should get in a yelling match with someone over completely inane shit like a photograph or go rack up another assault & battery charge? I mean, fuck, most of the adults are close minded bigots and most of the kids are either white kids who think they're black, wearing tap out shirts, or wearing jeans so tight they're probably sterile. Most of them deserve a good ass whoopin' hmm? I mean, I'm clearly a little higher up in the gene pool, so they deserve it, no?

P.S. My partner is calling you a "colossal twatwaffle", I'd correct him, say you has a different world view, but that doesn't fit in with this new philosophy you've handed down to me.

I think you're reading a little too far into stuff, and making assumptions based off things I said. I never said I would assault, or even yell at the lady. I don't think however, that it was the right thing for the cop to have to pretend to do something, just to satisfy someone who had no legal right to do anything. I don't run around yelling or hurting people, and generally have a nice disposition, UNTIL, someone does something that alters that. Why's is such a big deal to you? And why would I care what some random guy on the internet and his partner think of me? Get over it buddy.

While it could be phrased better, I agree with the sentiment. If the lady walked away thinking she was right, she is going to keep doing things like that, and worse yet, keep spreading what she believes to be facts.

The only good course of action would have been to explain the law to her, and if need be, explain the basic mechanics of film and cameras, even though that doesn't really come into play anyway. Even if it was digital you would have no legal obligation to delete her picture, even if she asked you, even if she never consented to the photo anyway.

Well if you're ever in that situation, feel free to handle it that way, but in my opinion, she probably would have walked away thinking she was right regardless of whether or not I had followed your suggestion (as one of the more reasonable ones).

Than I hope you're self aware of how much of an asshole you are. I've found anyone who says shit like that is typically a person who hits a guy in the back of the head with a 2x4 and runs to where his friend has already got the truck ready to roll out. Everybody deserves your respect just as you deserve everybody's respect. I realize this message may seem a little hypocritical of my message but I admit even I have to work on it.

She was clearly an idiot, she posed for the picture and agreed to have it taken, then got upset that it was unable to be returned to her because she did not understand technology that has been around since her grandmother was a child.

Sorry, she is an idiot, the cop should have told her to pound sand and quit harassing you.

Now she thinks she has the correct idea of what she can and cannot do and will bother others.

And this is why you must ALWAYS carry waivers for them to sign giving you permission & full rights to the pictures. I've heard of this happening too many times, only at later dates involving the courts & costly lawyers.

ETA: I'd imagine your school would already have them for you to use. Just photocopy a bunch & carry a pen. I always have a bunch in my camera bag...just in case.

The policeman actually told me about this afterwards, so I've made it a bit of a practice for the few times I take pictures of people nowadays, but most of the time in my pictures, you can't identify the person, either due to light behind them or they're not facing the camera.

I had this at a craft fair, a lady put her hand in front of my lens and told me i couldn't take photos, i wasn't sure, so i stopped and moved on, but she was a bit of a bitch about it. I was taking a photo of her cool clocks made from melted whiskey bottles. I think it was a design stealing worry too.

Surely if i wanted to steal her design, id just buy one and she is being stupid, because all her stuff can be bought online anyway...with photos :P

I had almost the exact same thing happen. I was at a fair, in the arts and crafts building with a friend. A cute girl walked past with a dress design I really liked, so I took a picture. Just one picture.

A few minutes later I'm on the phone and a man comes up and starts talking to me. I was going to ignore him but he was wearing a shirt that said "Staff" or something. He starts telling me that I'm taking pictures of his art and that's stealing. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I quickly hung up my phone, and explained to him what I had done. He kind of bought it, but didn't seem to happy about it. I got out of there pretty quickly and rejoined my friends.

It's not like I was using a DSLR to take hi-rez copies of his artwork. It was just a quick snap with a point and shoot, and there were no signs prohibiting photography. It was extremely awkward. :S

I've had this happen too at a farmers market. Took a picture at the top of a row and a kettle corn lady whose booth was near the top of the row came 90% unglued. She would have completely lost it if I had put up any argument. But I already got my shot and politely said, "OK... No worries." But I hate that condescending tone that these people give. and of course, I HATE that it all happens in front of other people and appears that "I" had done something wrong. But whatever.. It's not a battle worth fighting. And besides, we are a part of the same club now, right?

This was double edged for me. Learning on film I was really excited about being able to shoot as much as I wanted. It turns out that just made the editorial process more difficult for me. I'm better about picking the shots when I take them rather than later.

There's a lot of fishing going on in the evenings at the pier and the pelican was just standing on top of the fish cleaning station chilling. He didn't seem to mind me taking pictures of him while he would snap at others. I think it was because I wasn't yelling in excitement because he was there so close to people. It was really cool, kind of weird. I didn't know pelicans lived in California!

Holy shit, I had an almost identical experience with a pelican yesterday here in NC. Above a fish-cleaning station, took dozens and dozens of shots. Good stuff. I can't wait to see how they turned out.

Since I am just learning (I have had my camera for less than a week), I got a mixed bag. Some I thought were pretty good (and my husband the 'expert' agreed) and some were pretty damn crappy. At least I can just delete them. ;)

Was this on the Hermosa Beach Pier? I was there in July during the big volleyball tournament, and there was this pelican standing on the railing. Not really doing anything, just chilling and posing for pictures.

Oh, we get issue amplification here. People take hundreds of thousands of pictures in he same situations without issue. We here about the few hundred that end poorly. Don't be afraid, and don't let yourself get too excited and usually it works out.

Also, in situations like is interacting with the police often works out well.

Took a film photography class, did a lot of shots during festivals, carnivals, ect. Worst I got was a "I'll smile for you." By some girl as I was looking through my camera at things to shoot and she just happened to walk into my shot.

I can't find the article, but I read a story about a guy getting arrested in (I think) Chicago for taking pictures in the city park. Apparently they have some sort of large art sculpture there that they don't allow people to photograph. I don't recall any additional details. That doesn't seem logical. It is city property, but it is a public park.

I'm always a little afraid of this when I go to craft fairs. I like to go to buy things and take in the sights, but I don't take my camera. If I like something well enough to try and make it for myself, I try to just take a mental picture. Some people get touchy about that stuff.

I remember when I was on a night out with my friend. we bought a pizza on the way home and i was taking pictures, as you do. I was a bit drunk and had my camera on me from earlier in the day. So I'm taking a picture and this Iraqi looking pizza guy thinks I'm taking a picture of him (I wasn't) he starts going irate and getting in my face, he snatches my camera out of my hand and pulls the film out of it ruining all the shots I had taken that night.
I didn't even do anything about it except be like what? ಠ_ಠ I was pretty stunned. He REALLY didn't want his picture taken. I was pretty pissed off but ultimately too drunk and tired to really do anything about it except want to go home and stuff my face with doughy goodness, we got the pizza free though from the cool women who works there.
If it had been a different situation (and I had been sober) I would have expressed my rights and stuck up for myself, but he had a scar on his face, looked angry and had about 2 other friends working with him.

This thread helped me remember the story so thanks! Now I'm all annoyed again.

I went to King's Park in Perth, Western Australia, and wanted to take a picture of a beautiful dress I saw but the lady at the counter said I had to turn my camera off. It wasn't even a good camera, crappy little Sony Cybershot. I really liked the pattern on the dress materials and was disappointed I wasn't allowed to take a photo. With the expensive stuff on sale there though, I think I can understand why she didn't want people taking photos.

With the expensive stuff on sale there though, I think I can understand why she didn't want people taking photos.

Why? To prevent people from coming back and buying the expensive items they didn't want to buy on an impulse? Lots of people try to match their wardrobe. The more expensive the item, the more careful you should be.

My last three ventures have netted me hassles from the local cops. It's at the point now where they have won the war with me. I think twice about stepping out with my camera now, and more often than not, I don't bring it. It was my only pleasure, too.